Connections to the Past
by Navi The Gardevoir
Summary: Many have heard of the ancient Kalos War. While not many live to retell the tale, it's well known among the descendants of the two Kings and their soldiers. One of these descendants, Nolan, is about to set off on the new season of Gym battles. With his trusty Gallade, and his own wits, he will accidentally uncover a shocking secret about his family heritage.
1. Chapter 1: A Look Into The Life of Nolan

'_Text_' –Thoughts

'**Text**'-Telepathy

'[Text]'-Poke speech

**A/N: Now, I've had some experience writing fan fiction, (Mostly Gears of War) and this is going to be my first piece on this site. But I've never worked on a Pokémon fan fiction and I'm personally enthralled to finally start writing on a piece of my own. I hope for your guys support and make sure to review my first piece on this story so far.**

For many years, people have discussed the ancient Kalos War. Although none live to retell the tale, it's well known in the minds of the descendants of the two Kings and soldiers of their forgotten past. Me? I'm one of those people. My great, great, great… Well, you get the idea; grandfather of centuries past was the commander of a troop of soldiers in the Kalos War. Well, from what my family heritage is being told from anyway. I've decided to write this story as a recollection of events I've lived through the past few months. I don't even understand why I'm writing this, I'm destroying the evidence soon after. I guess I just need to get this knowledge off my chest. It all started months ago in this present age…

_5 months prior to writing…_

In the southern region of Kalos slept a small town, Vaniville. While not large and not as bustling as the nearby Santalune City, the town had its fair share of residents and a famous Ryhorn racer to its name. It was currently dawn, and the residents of Vaniville began to stir themselves awake. Nolan, still asleep, had a flash appear before him as a disapproving face stared at his sleeping form. The face, still disapproved, entered Nolan's mind with unnatural ability and gave his dream self, a quick slap. Nolan jumped out of bed with a quick yell. "Gah! What the hell!" He shouted with enough force to give his neighbors an annoyed look. Nolan rubbed his eyes and looked over towards his best friend, his partner. Nolan began to smile and chuckled a bit.

"I forgot to set my alarm again, didn't I?" He said towards the figure standing with its arms crossed. The figure, a Gallade, nodded and gave a quick chuckle himself. "Alright, alright, you had your fun. Now return," Nolan said has he picked up the Gallade's Luxury ball. The Pokémon disappeared in a flash of red light as he returned to the ball. Nolan, with a quick stretch, yawned and scanned his eyes around the room. As he looked at his Alarm clock he noticed it was still 30 minutes until seven, when he normally got up.

"Sonva Lillipup woke me up early," he muttered to himself. Above the alarm clock, was his calendar. The picture for the month was of a Milotic and it's trainer posing in front of a fountain that featured a Roselia shooting water out of it's flowers, Nolan remembered seeing the fountain last time he visited Santalune City. The date on the calendar itself was the month of June, the 21th, the summer solstice. Nolan squinted and noticed he had circled the date with a red marker and written the words 'IMPORTANT!' under it in large letters.

Nolan's eyes shot open. He rushed to his bedside and snatched his bag and belt, fumbling with them and elbowing his door to get it open. In haste, he stumbled downstairs into his living room and ran towards the door of his house. As he opened the door, he tripped over his welcome mat and face planted on to the cement.

"Ow," Nolan growled in pain. Dropping his gear he stood up and wiped the dirt and grime off his clothing as his neighbor, a woman by the name of Veronica, walked up to him stifling a laugh with her hand. Nolan, with dismay on his face, studied her.

She was a stout woman, standing around 5' 4" with chocolate brown hair and dazzling blue eyes; she was fairly attractive, wearing a white T-Shirt that said, 'I (Picture of a Luvdisc) Kalos!' Noticing that Nolan was gawking at her, she adjusted her ponytail and commented on his fall.

"Very nice, I'd give that landing an eight."

"Yeah… I seem to forget my ability is Klutz."

"You could work on your form a bit next time," she added. Sighing, she added again, "You know, didn't most trainers leave to start the Gym Season yesterday?" She was right, Nolan was one of few trainers sticking around Vaniville until the last minute. In Kalos, the Gym season starts at the summer solstice and ends at the winter solstice, when the new champion is revealed.

"Why do you think I was in such a rush," I asked, "Gallade woke me up mere seconds ago and I thought the bastard had woken me up early. Turns out, he knows more about my life than I do."

She gave a playful sigh, and said, "Well, you aren't too late, right? I've been itching to battle someone all week. But most of Vaniville is already camped outside Santalune city Gym." Nolan rolled his eyes as he saw Veronica grab a blue pokeball with red stripes on it from her belt.

Instead of waiting for him to answer, she threw out her ball to reveal a Roserade with a mask over it's face, like a ninja. Nolan smiled as he held the pokeball on his belt that he knew he was going with before their battle even started. Nolan's eyes flared and he felt the same rush he always felt when engaged in the intense combat known as Pokémon battling.

"Come on Orca!" He shouted with vigor as he threw his Luxury ball and his Gallade, Orca, entered the battlements. The Gallade's shiny blue form sparkled in the raising sunlight. In perfect sync, Orca and Nolan locked eyes with their opposition, who did the same. Each trainer waited for each other to make the first move as the world seemed to sit still. Then, sensing an opportunity, Veronica's Roserade began to churn a psychic energy within it's eyes and Veronica shouted, "Lady Rose, use extrasensory!" Predicting this, Nolan shouted to Orca, "Dodge and then follow up with a Psycho Cut!" Orca moved with valiant swiftness, as a wall of psychic energy formed and spread outward from the Roserade. Orca resisted and countered with a swift attack into the Roserade's leg, throwing it off balance. In another fluid movement, Orca sprang upward trying to land an Aerial Ace on the Roserade. "Get out of there!" yelled Veronica, and the Roserade followed her orders trying to dodge the swipe, but was to slow. The Aerial Ace found it's mark and hit the Roserade straight on, in a comical fashion the Roserade twirled around as if it was seeing stars and then fell over on the grass. Veronica huffed and called back her Roserade, who disappeared back into it's ball.

"Well, now that I've stalled you long enough. I think I should let you be on your way," Veronica began as she turned around and started back towards her house on the opposite side of the street. With a hint of a smile, Orca did a bow and was returned to his ball, his shiny form still sparkling. As the flare from the battle subsided, Nolan attached Orca back to his belt, and straightened his bag, as he stared at the rising sun in the distance.

**A/N: Wow, that was pretty short, if I make more of these in the future, I will extend the time between chapters, I just needed to introduce and foreshadow the plot for this chapter. Thanks for giving my story a read.**


	2. Chapter 2: Aquacorde Town

'_Text_' –Thoughts

'**Text**'-Telepathy

'[Text]'-Poke speech

**A/N: I noticed I had a few errors in my writing after posting the first Chapter. I will attempt to address the errors more and do a better search for errors in this chapter. Anyway, this one is a bit longer, so grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy this nonsense I'm writing.**

Nolan crouched by the Vaniville gate checking his gear once more. Wiping dust off his shoulder from his previous fall, Veronica stood next to him.

"You know," she began, "you still haven't stocked up on food yet." Nolan stood up and faced Veronica; he always thought it was kind of cute when she fussed over him.

"I don't need to," he said to her, "I plan to be in Santalune City by lunch and I can always let my team out in Aquacorde Town just past Route 1."

Veronica rolled her eyes and smiled as if she were remembering something. "But you aren't gonna be attacked by a swarm of Beedrill this time, right?" Nolan shivered and responded, "Ugh, don't remind me." Veronica laughed and shoved Nolan, "Now get going already! It's almost 8 o' clock, Gym challengers are already in Santalune!" Without another word, Nolan nodded and sprinted off past the Vaniville gate and into Route 1, while Veronica called after him, "Wait a minute! You didn't even change your clothes!" Nolan grinned and slowed to a jog, studying the scenery around him. Not much tall grass was on Route 1, but on both sides of the road Nolan could see into the trees.

Caterpie were clinging to the bark and trunks of passing trees while Weedle and Scatterbugs passed through the stubby grass below. Nolan looked skyward and saw a flock of Fletchlings flying and contrasting to the blue sky; flying even higher, were two Talonflame scanning the ground for Bug-Type prey.

Because Nolan was focusing on everything but in front of him, he face planted into Aquacorde Town's gate. Falling on into his back he groaned in pain, "Ow." Without so much as a word, Orca appeared before Nolan, with a hint of a smile on his face. Then he heard Orca's rough voice enter his mind. "**You know**," he began his sentence much like Veronica did, "**maybe you should watch where you are going next time, just a bit.**" Orca tried to mock Veronica's voice, but his was much too deep. Orca offered Nolan his hand and he took it, scowling. "Yeah, I noticed Orca. You really have to stop popping out of your ball unannounced." The Gallade shrugged and extended his hand to open the town gate. "**Shall we**?" he asked.

Nolan entered the town with Orca trailing behind him. Aquacorde was slightly larger than Vaniville, trainers and residents milled about its courtyard style entrance with shops and cafes on either side. To the north was a bridge crossing a calm flowing river, the bridge lead to Route 2 and the forest nearby. To Nolan's right, he noticed a group of kids that he remembered as his neighbors in Vaniville. From the group he could see the famous Rhyhorn racer's daughter and her friends discussing something around one of the café tables. Nolan and Orca walked down the white tile steps until they entered the town square.

Stopping by a fountain in the middle of the town, he motioned for Orca to standby. "Wait a sec," Nolan told him. "I think the rest of the team would like some air." Orca nodded.

Nolan, with swift movements, threw two pokeballs into the air, a standard red ball, and an Ultra ball. Two flashes appeared above the fountain as a pair of feet thumped the ground and a pair of wings beat against the air. Nolan smiled as he recognized the two Pokémon whom he had spent at least half of his life with. The feet, belonged to a female Greninja by the name of Shadow. The wings, belonged to a male Swellow by the name of Maximus. Shadow stood up on her legs and crossed her arms, towering above Nolan and Orca. Maximus soared into the sky above and let out a loud cry as he did complex aerial maneuvers.

[About time,] commented Shadow, while being translated by Orca. [You've had us cooped up in there since our training ended yesterday.] Nolan sighed, "Yeah, sorry. I got a little caught up with trying to get to Aquacorde Town before the sun rose too high." Checking his watch, Nolan suggested to Orca and Shadow, "Well, it seems we still have time to rest up here and grab some grub." Suddenly, Maximus shouted from above, [Did I hear grub? WHERE?!]

"No! No! I meant breakfast… Breakfast alright!" Maximus swooped down and landed on Nolan's out stretched arm with a defeated look. Nolan smirked and said, "But yeah, that includes grub." Maximus sprang off Nolan's arm with a cheerful cry. Shadow shook her head, her scarf like tongue waving behind her.

[You sure I can't use Ice Beam on him?] She asked innocently, [I'm sure he won't mind being frozen for a few hours.] Nolan flashed a smile.

"No, but thanks Shadow, that won't be necessary." Shadow nodded and closed her eyes, sensing the air around her. Nolan, Orca and Shadow continued on a path towards one of the many cafés in town, while Maximus flew overhead yelling, [GRUB!] Every once and a while.

After having breakfast, Nolan returned the team to their pokeballs and began walking down the path the path and across the bridge into Route 2. Route 2 was much larger than Route 1 and was overgrown with tall grass, a perfect place for new trainers to catch their first Pokémon. Nolan remembered back to when he began journeying with Orca and a Froakie he had just received from Professor Sycamore. That was over 12 years ago. He looked over to a stump where he once sat next to a small shiny Ralts. The stump now had covering it's bark, but he could still remember that day clearly.

_12 years ago…_

A younger version of Nolan sat with his hands to his eyes, rubbing away tears. He couldn't catch a Pokémon, even after trying countless times. He looked at the ruffles in the tall grass, as if the countless Zigzagoon, Fletchlings and Pidgeys were mocking him. A tiny blue Ralts sat next to him, feeling disappointed as well. He hated to see Nolan with dismay on his face, and soon the Ralts fell depressed as it picked up its head and scanned the grass. Then, in the corner of its eye, the Ralts spotted a small sparkle. Nolan noticed it too, as he got up to inspect the shining object closer; a runty Taillow swooped down and pecked at Nolan's ear playfully. Surprised, Nolan zipped around, throwing the Taillow off balance and knocking it away from him. The Taillow crashed to the ground, breaking its wing. Nolan, seeing what he had done, burst into tears and gently picked up the Taillow in his hands, holding it close to him.

Calling at the Ralts to follow, Nolan ran across the bridge to Aquacorde Town, where his father was. Nolan's Father was talking to Veronica's mother by the fountain in the town square. As he noticed Nolan approach, he turned towards him, smiling. But when he noticed tears in the young boy's eyes he frowned. He crouched down to the child's height and looked at the winching Taillow in the frightened Nolan's arms. With great care he took the Pokémon from Nolan and searched through his bag with his other hand, trying to find a potion. Finding one, he sprayed the Taillow's wing as the potion sped up the healing of the young Pokémon. The father looked into his child's tearful eyes and told him something he would remember for as long as he lived.

"Never be afraid to correct your mistakes."

The child nodded as he took the Taillow into his arms again and walked back to his gear in Route 2 with the Ralts trailing behind him. When he returned to the stump, he set the Taillow down next to the grass, expecting it to flee into the foliage or fly away. Instead, it walked over on its talons to the sparkle in the grass and hopped onto the shining object. Nolan, confused, inspected the object. It was an Ultra ball. _Some trainer must've dropped it_, Nolan thought. The Taillow nudged the abandoned pokeball with it's beak. "You… You want to come with me?" Nolan asked. The Taillow nodded and he picked up the ball. Taillow stared intently at Nolan, urging him to throw the ball. Nolan nodded and threw the ball at the Taillow, lightly bopping it's head. The Taillow disappeared into the ball with a flash of light. The ball shook once, twice, three times. Nolan held his breath. Then the light 'Ding!' sound of the pokeball went off, singling a successful capture. Nolan almost screamed in joy as he grabbed the ball off the ground and ran back to Aquacorde Town to tell his father about the capture, pure joy radiating from his face. The Ralts stumbled after him, crying out in joy as well.

Back in the present, Nolan sat on the same stump, now recollecting that moment. Checking his watch again, he realized how much time he stalled. Nolan slapped his hand to his face and groaned. He adjusted his bag and belt and sprinted off towards Santalune forest, stumbling along the way.

_During the time of Nolan's original writing…_

Nolan, sat back in his chair, feeling like he was an old man, when he only just 23. _Writing this is going to be harder than I first believed, _he thought to himself. Nolan put his hand across his mouth, feeling his unshaved stubble and sighed. Getting up from his chair, he turned off the lamp that oversaw his desk and his journal. Without moving, Nolan turned towards a calendar on the wall. November, 22nd. He ran the date through his mind again, November, 22nd, November 22nd. The date pierced his mind. _It was only last week, _Nolan thought. _Why am I torturing myself with this? _Nolan stumbled over to his window, opening it and giving himself fresh air. He looked up in the stars above Lumiose, wondering if his father was looking down on him.

"I'm sorry Dad," he said openly. "I won't give up on myself." Nolan looked down into the streets of Lumiose below; he had been staying at the Hotel Richissime for the past few days in a top floor suite. After watching the bustling city life unfold in front of him, he closed his window and returned to the desk in the corner of the room. He opened a mini-fridge underneath the desk and took out his fifth beer of the day. Unscrewing the lid, he downed the putrid drink and turned his lamp on, faced his journal, and continued to write.

**A/N: I wanted to extend this chapter more, but I felt this was a very good place to end off at. I hope to start making these on a weekly basis instead of daily, or else I'll work myself to death. Whelp, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will go more into Nolan's backstory and heritage soon. (As well as to how he obtained a Shiny Gallade.) Oh! One more thing, Nolan named the Gallade, Orca, because it's based off of the sword master's name from Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Not a whale.**


End file.
